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VANCOUVER - The former head of the Vancouver Olympics denies that he sexually abused two former students.

In a statement of defence filed in a Vancouver court today, John Furlong says he doesn't recall if he taught Grace West and Beverly Abraham during his time as a volunteer teacher at a Catholic school in northern British Columbia.

But Furlong says he did not physically abuse or engage in any inappropriate conduct while at Immaculata school in 1969 and 1970.

The two women filed civil claims after allegations of physical abuse surfaced earlier this year against Furlong in connection to when he taught First Nations students in Burns Lake.

The women are seeking compensation for both physical and sexual abuse, as well as for defamation over Furlong's suggestion at a news conference that unnamed persons were lying in order to extort him.

In his document reply, Furlong says he did not identify the people involved, and it was the women themselves who made their identities public.